


Truths

by KSForever



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Discussion about the difference between Pon Farr & Plak Tow, M/M, Mention of Amok Time, Please send Kudos or kind reviews again for this added to & now re-posted fanfic, Pon Farr, Protective friend and vigilant Dr Leonard Bones McCoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 21:14:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10705245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KSForever/pseuds/KSForever
Summary: Last year I read part of a story by author 'WeirdLittleStories', and me trying to explain what I think Pon Farr actually is like (would be, if Vulcans were real!) inspired me to write a story. Tonight, I have re-read that story - almost exactly a year after writing it. I went back in to it, and added lines, explaining things better. I've done quite a bit of work on it. SO, I deleted the original version of the story, which, on the KS Automated Archive, had one review, by Laustic, and 608 reads - all so that I can re-add the story, and get it noticed again - hopefully, as being a better story than it was.When Spock is due to go through with Pon Farr, Jim, who has just started a relationship with Spock, gets pulled aside and talked to by his other best friend, McCoy. Jim explains a lot of things as best he can. This does reassure Dr McCoy





	Truths

Truths

“Jim, please, think things through before you get involved with Spock.” Bones touched Jim’s shoulder as they stood in Jim’s Quarters. “If it’s not a casual thing, then, it’s serious, and if it’s serious, that means you’ll probably have to see him through something called Pon Farr, and that’s something that is very, very serious.” 

“Yes, I know. I do know what it is, Bones.” Jim patted McCoy on the shoulders.

“You do?” Bones queried.

“Yes. He told me about it, about all the things I might need to know about having a Vulcan partner.” Jim explained.

“It’s that serious??” Leonard asked.

“Yes, it is.” Jim admitted.

“What did he tell you, about the mating cycle thing they go through?” McCoy asked.

“Pon Farr is a feverish phase, where Vulcans’ usual resolve to control their emotions, gets attacked by massively escalating hormone and adrenaline levels. From being the calm souls we are allowed to see, they become powerless to appear any other way than what they are going through at that moment. All their emotions, all their body’s responses to those hormones; they cannot hide it from themselves or anyone else. They have no choice but to go through something that strips them of their usual emotional barriers – That something being something that will kill them, from the stresses it puts their body under, IF it goes unanswered. To answer it, sex becomes truly vital.” Jim answered.

“Do you think you can withstand his strength and drives?” McCoy pondered aloud, what had been worrying him so; confronting Jim with it.

“I have some strength and drives of my own, Bones – and, yes, I will have to guide him- tell him to not get himself in even more of a state than he already is. Yes. I will have to tell him if he puts more of his strength into a ‘move’ than is comfortable for me, or that might cause him some harm, but he will not rape me. This is not about dubious consent.” Jim firmly told Bones.

“Are you sure he won’t hurt you?” Bones had to ask.

“He told me everything, and then, we mind melded, and he told me again. I know everything he knows; every text he’s managed to read about it, etc, etc…” Jim furthered. “Plak Tow is the final stage of the fever, before death, and Plak Tow only occurs if a Vulcan has left it too long to begin mating, and has been rendered incapable of the act of sex, OR if the Vulcan perceives their chosen mate as about to be taken away from them. If they perceive that, then, more hormones and adrenaline and God knows what else, gets heaped upon them, and for at least as long as the duration of the fight, they lose their mind, and then and only then, do they become vindictively violent, but the sex and violence are SEPARATE ways to get rid of the torturous pain. First, sex is an option. Then, their body ticks over further, and it, somehow, knows that sex is no longer an option. So, it fights; it shuts down everything, impulse-wise, but the impulse to fight. Their mind will, eventually, return to its state of being controllable, but it could take a few extra hours than if they realise the Pon Farr is on them early enough, and have sex. We intend never to let him become a danger to himself, or anyone else, ever again. It will be dealt with early enough. We can’t let him become a danger to himself, or, any one he might see as a threat.”

“I hope you don’t.” McCoy noted. “I really hope that it is all as simple as dealing with it promptly enough.”

“Spock will never harbour any want to hurt me during our sexual encounters, and he won’t feel that he needs to.” Jim said. “Pon Farr does not turn every Vulcan, even the best and kindest of them, into dangerous prowlers. Plak Tow does that. If a Vulcan ever tries to force himself on another, it is as a result of the final stages of the fever, the Plak Tow, NOT the Pon Farr. It is a last-ditch attempt to survive the flames that are torturing them. They don’t know what they’re doing; their sentient minds are swamped, and out of touch with anything that means that they can take back control. It’s just the instinctual mind that fights – it isn’t the person. I know that all of that sounds like I’m just rationalising rape, or the potential for it; I’m aware of what it sounds like, but, at this, the time of Pon Farr, for a Vulcan, Plak Tow, the eventual state of Pon Farr going unanswered, is what induces violence. Their minds and bodies work, first, to have sex, and when that isn’t possible, it’s like the equivalent of them getting off-their-head on drugs. That addled mind goes from ‘I must have sex’ to ‘the only way to end my pain is to let myself die, or kill this dualist who is trying to kill me!’. It’s not like a human predator; someone who might rape, and then, claim his hormones made him do it, or he couldn’t stop it. Vulcans’ bodies, when the Plak Tow takes hold, have a biochemical way of knowing that sex is no longer achievable; this, subsequently, triggers another set of reactions, and, as a result, they fight. They can only hold off the fighting for so long before they honestly don’t know what they’re doing, or anything about who they are when they’re not being drowned by the effects of Plak Tow; they don’t have much, if any recognition, with regards to whom they’re fighting, beyond ‘this person’s really getting my back up, and, more importantly; they’re trying to kill me, and they might yet succeed.’ Spock’s shame was so powerful, because the biggest responsibility a Vulcan has when their Pon Farr begins to make itself known, is to make sure that they deal with it, before Plak Tow comes from it, meaning that they might hurt others. He feels, or felt, for a while, and, sometimes, still does, that he kept putting things off; that he should have known, and, also, should have anticipated what T’Pring did, and made other arrangements. He deals with the guilt of that, as well as the grief of hurting me. Vulcans truly don’t know what they’re doing if Plak Tow sets in, but, I suspect, most still feel the guilt that half-human Spock also does, should they hurt, or kill, someone as a result of the Plak Tow. It’s not like a human rapist or murderer saying ‘I was drunk; I can’t be held responsible, or thought of as a monster.’ When Plak Tow becomes a reality, they might well end up killing someone; therefore, their civic duty and moral obligation is to not let things progress into becoming the Plak Tow. They might be able to ignore their guilt, if they fail at that attempt, by obviscating it with logic, but they still feel it; Spock’s not alone in that, but he does think that being half human makes him not as good at dealing with his guilt as a full blood Vulcan, in his place, would be. Truth is, Spock was stuck, but he would have done everything right if T’Pring hadn’t been so heartless. He fought; he fought for so long, compared to many, to not lose himself to the agony; even as a half human, he showed that much strength. You were witness to his resilient attempts not to have to fight. I’ve since read every study I can find; I think, for safety’s sake, I could tell you some of it, or tell you where to read what I did manage to find, somewhere other than in mine and Spock’s mind-meld. Everything I’ve explained is a fact of the truth, and none of it’s a lie, or any part of a falsehood that they tell themselves and us. It’s all an independently evaluated truth. You can ask M’Benga.”

“So, if we don’t notice, if we let things go too far, is there a chance that he could attempt to rape you, or someone else?” McCoy asked blatantly. 

“No. By the time of the Plak Tow, their bodies know that they cannot perform sexually, and so, the switch goes over into violence, and fighting.” Jim noted. 

“In our world, people who can’t perform sexually, still sometimes try.” Doctor Leonard H. McCoy noted.

“In our world, and, sadly, in many others, they do.” Jim agreed. “The connection between the Vulcan mind and body is different.” Jim paused. “I promise you; I’m not even attempting to fabricate a truth that you’ll be more comfortable with.”

“It’s stupid that I’ve never been allowed to read up about this stage in his life.” McCoy interjected. “I mean, it must be due soon!? I need to know, so that I can give you two all the medical help you might need. I mean, what about stamina and fuelling the body with nutrients so that it can keep going, and going, until things are answered? What about sleep, or tackling a certain lack of it? Even ridiculous things, like, can you take a bathroom break?”

“Even if they hardly ever talk about it, no Vulcan goes through Pon Farr without the medical assistance of a healer, and no Vulcan is meant to mate with another Vulcan who is going through the Pon Farr at the same time they are. The Healers use medical technology to look into the body clock of their patient, and determine when a Vulcan is due to go through Pon Farr, and they choose that patient a partner who has a different cycle. These tests are usually done when a Vulcan is about 17 years old. Yes, some Vulcans are betrothed before adulthood – because their parents take the view that they want to choose an extended family for their child to be accepted into, if anything happens to them as parents – but if that path is chosen, then, when the betrothed pair are, again, about seventeen years old, and at least another four or five years away from their first Pon Farr cycle, they are taken to the ‘Mystics’, to give them the title used in Ancient Vulcan, and through their bonded minds, theirs, and the Mystics third party mind, melding to each of the betrothed’s minds; the best attempt is made to make sure that their Pon Farr cycles are separate events. No matter the path to their first Pon Farr, every Vulcan needs a partner who can look out for them, hold their hand, ease their fears of being lost in the heat and the over-activeness of their own, usually so ordered, minds. If it was a case of both partners suffering from the effects of Pon Farr at the same time; they would, together, perhaps, become listless, and slip so far into the Fever that Plak Tow would rear its head, and though, it would be very unlikely that they’d fight one another, because they are linked, bonded, whatever states their minds are in – the link is an actual, measurable, natural, biochemical thing, and they wouldn’t see each other as a danger, a threat to the bond, to be fought - they would likely just lay side by side and die together, overcome by the final stages of this thing that can kill them. There have been very few, documented or rumoured, cases of a bonded couple killing each other, or one of the two, in an effort to fight for fighting’s sake, so that, in doing so, the Plak Tow might be banished from the victor.”

“Thank the Lord for that small mercy!” McCoy said. “So, when Spock was meant to marry to T’Pring, - and I’m sorry to bring that up, for many reasons – they were bonded, and she was still so callous?”

“They were bonded to a level, but the Bond, thankfully, was not very successful, i.e biochemically strong – nothing brings a bond together stronger, like magnets pulled together by science and a kind of instinct, than real love.” Jim informed his friend.

“Then, forgive the lack of refinery in my question, but when he fought you in the sands of Vafer Tor, why didn’t he try and get sexual with you?” McCoy asked.

“Because he didn’t think it was possible, or an option or whatever, and when T’Pau insisted on the fight going ahead, the Plak Tow was already coming into play. He didn’t recognise me, as such, that is until part of his conscious, sentient mind fought through, and he left me alone once he thought he’d really hurt me.” Jim said truthfully.

“That wasn’t ‘just’ the fever having been abated because as far as he was concerned, he’d killed you, and got rid of any threat to his bond with the bitch?” McCoy mused.

“That was part of it, but he didn’t beat me to a pulp, did he? He stopped pretty soon.” Jim responded.

“Are you sure you’re not just holding that up there as the answer?” McCoy asked.

“You were there! Stop fearing for me for just a second, and remember – Did he look like he experienced any moment of ‘Good! The Bastard’s dead’??” Jim asked. “The fever doesn’t clear so quickly that they return back to normal the minute they find themselves seeing a dead body before their eyes.” Jim paused again. “I do have my own memories and sensed recollections about laying there in the sand, defeated. I’m not just relying on a mind meld with a man I already love and trust, to tell me what I want to hear – the minute I closed my eyes, stopped fighting, and let those pills you gave me, start taking effect properly; he stopped. He didn’t beat me one more time to make sure of anything. He stopped, perhaps, because the fever stopped as abruptly, as a shock to his system wiped his half human mind of the fever, but I think it left him so abruptly because he wanted to stop. I know he was fighting it – and a mind meld doesn’t just show you what someone’s convinced themselves of, or what the person you’re melded with, might want you to believe. It takes you places as though you’re there. Shows you everything that each mind, individually perceived. It gives you the processing strength of two conscious minds’ powers of perception, to help you decipher your own experiences; it really does. I have access, when I am melded with Spock, to his thoughts, emotions, memories, yes, but I do know my own thoughts, and I add them to his. So, he can understand me better, too. Yes, there’s emotional transference, and the fact that you’re experiencing two viewpoints playing out, side by side, yours and his, but I can recognise my own mind. Sometimes, the visions and emotions over-lap, but I know which are my thoughts, and which are his. I promise. If that wasn’t a fact, then, the guiding light that I am there to be during his Pon Farr, would not be able to shine enough to be of any use. It appears that my mind is no less strong for its being human. So, I can do the same job for him that a Vulcan partner would do.” 

“I’m sorry to make it sound like I’ve got it in for him – and I know he won’t have it in for you, in the deliberately pain inducing, vindictive sense of that saying, when he’s in the midst of Pon Farr; he is a friend to both of us. I haven’t forgotten that, and started seeing a monster in his place. I know that he is genuinely every bit the good man we have come to know. It’s not a lie, I know that, and neither is his love for you. He may be Vulcan, but those who know you both can still tell.” Bones noted.

Jim smiled. “I’m glad.”

“You can do job as well as any Vulcan guiding light because of that real love you mentioned – and you two wouldn’t have got this far, this accepted by his people as Bonded; trusted by them, as well as him, with such private knowledge about Vulcan life and culture, if he didn’t feel the same way about you, too.” McCoy fathomed, as he still stood there in Jim’s Quarters with him.

“Thank you!” Jim smiled. “Thank you, my friend.”

“May you always enjoy being every bit as much in love…” McCoy pledged.

“Thank you, again, and amen to that..!” Jim replied.

 

The End..?  
10.4.16/ Partially re-written on 23.4.17


End file.
